Jawan held for ambulance theft

KANPUR/ALLAHABAD: An army jawan stole an army ambulance from the station headquarters in Allahabad early on Saturday morning and rushed towards Kanpur at high speed, breaking three barriers put up in different districts, police said.

After the high voltage drama, the jawan, identified as Sarabjeet Chowdhary, was nabbed in Sachendi where the police had to create a jam-like situation on the main highway to slow him down.

The cops got small and big vehicles unevenly parked and used trucks to seal exit points.

“Since the barriers were not working, we decided to bring in heavy trucks to create a jam-like situation,” said circle officer, Sadar, Samiksha Pandey.

“As the ambulance slowed down, the police managed to overpower the driver near Sachendi around 11.30 am,” she said. Chowdhary is currently posted in Ladakh and had come to Allahabad on a holiday.

He stole the ambulance at around 6.30 am on Saturday.

“He is trying to mislead the police officers who are questioning him to ascertain the motive behind the theft,” said Pandey.

Senior superintendent of police, Kanpur, Akhilesh Kumar said Chowdhary would be handed over to an army team which was on its way to Kanpur.

He is likely to be interrogated by a team of Army intelligence officials.

“Sarabjeet is a native of Jhunjhnu district in Rajasthan. Primary investigations have revealed that Chowdhary was posted in Allahabad in 2016 but was transferred to Ladakh. Instead of going to his native place, he often used to come here on leave,” Station house officer, Allahabad Cantonment, RS Rawat said.

“The guard on duty identified Chowdhary and informed his superiors. An alert was sounded on Allahabad-kanpur highway after army officials informed the police about the ambulance theft,” he added. NEW DELHI: Swedish firm Saab AB’S chairman Marcus Wallenberg met Indian government officials this week to explore the possibility of expanding aerospace collaboration, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Wallenberg met science and technology minister YS Chowdary and Andhra Pradesh officials earlier this week, along with a delegation of Swedish officials, the person mentioned above said, declining to be named.

The talks included leveraging Sweden’s strengths in high technology areas such as aerospace, as also food processing, in Andhra Pradesh, said a second person aware of the matter .

The possibility of setting up a light aircraft manufacturing facility was discussed at the meeting, the first person cited above said. Aerospace manufacturing has seen steady growth in Hyderabad in the past few years with the Tata group making parts for Boeing and Lockheed Martin,